The Matter With Kansas Is Who It Elects

I want to read another fine article in the conservative and/or libertarian press about how wonderful it is that Governor Sam Brownback and his pet legislature are using the state of Kansas as one great big lab rat in an ongoing pro-freedom experiment.

(Gotta love the adherence to journalistic convention in that headline, too. "Controversy" has erupted. Ya think?)

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A bill working its way through the Kansas Legislature is getting national attention. The original version of the bill would have allowed the state to quarantine people with HIV or AIDS. The latest version of Senate Bill 2183 has lines through much of the text. The bill had to be amended after questions were raised as to whether those living with the disease had to be kept away from the general public. Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, insists that the bill was not deliberately written to target people with HIV and AIDS."I don't think that there is malice and intent on the part of our agency. I think what they're trying to do is consolidate and clean up statutes relating to infectious diseases," Kelly said.

And this occurred to Ms. Kelly right about the time that the "controversy" broke out.

Kelly included the words, "medically necessary and reasonable" under the statute which would give the Secretary of Health the power to issue such an order. "We're expecting that it will make it very clear that is never medically necessary or reasonable to quarantine or isolate someone with HIV or AIDS," she said.

And, on your way home, try very hard not to drive your 18-wheeler through that loophole over there.

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